Dan Gilbert, who is most known for being the Cleveland Cavalier owner, has invested $40 million into the company that was once known as Rap Genius.
“For nearly four decades, Rap (and Hip Hop culture in general) has been one of the most influential music genres of our time,” Gilbert says on the media outlet, Choose Thinking. “Rap and Hip Hop have transcended from music into fashion, sports, politics, film and pop culture.
“Since its debut in 2009, Rap Genius has caught on in a big way among artists and the public, allowing everyone to dive into the lyrics of Hip Hop music to find a deeper and better understanding of the creators’ original intent,” Gilbert continues. “In addition, the burgeoning company has entered into licensing partnerships with all of the major music publishers, as well as dozens of smaller ones.”
Rap Genius has changed its name to just simply, Genius and with this recent investment Genius is moving in on it mission “to crowdsource the annotation of ALL TEXT on the internet (that’s right—the entire web),” Gilbert says.
“Welcome to Genius.com, the brand-new hub for all the Genius communities (Rap Genius, Rock Genius, Lit Genius, everything),” the site says. “Starting today, ‘Genius’ is the new name of the grand project, born from rap’s rib, to annotate the world.”
